


On Anniversaries

by writteninweakness



Series: Things Lost in the Fire Detective AU [4]
Category: Amnesia (Game & Anime)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Maybe a little angst, Originally Posted on Tumblr, set in the detective au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 08:22:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18426720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writteninweakness/pseuds/writteninweakness
Summary: A case leads to Kent and Kokoa discussing anniversaries and what they mean to people.





	On Anniversaries

**Author's Note:**

> I have been meaning to post this here for a while. I just got lazy or sidetracked by silly crossover fic. Anyway, I wrote this when sofihatter545 requested something for their anniversary in this AU.
> 
> That led to a question of... what do they even consider their anniversary, and so was born the fic.

* * *

“I do not think I will ever understand people,” Kent said, and Kokoa looked over at him with a frown. He’d been busy with his experiments when she came into the lab and sat down in her chair to read over her own textbooks, trying to keep up with her coursework, which was already feeling like too much, even though she’d barely started class.

She shook that off, not wanting to think about that. She’d start to obsess over how guilty she was, since she already felt like it was taking advantage of Kent to stay here with him rent free, even if he insisted he didn’t need it and her helping keep the house clean was enough. She hadn’t done much of that while she was recovering, and now her classes kept her so busy she didn’t have much time for it, but he told her that didn’t matter.

Learning was important to Kent, and she knew that. Kent valued knowledge over most everything else, but then she supposed that was one of few things he felt he had left after losing his parents and everything else that happened. Oh, he had his friends and Ikki who was like a brother to him more than anything, but that was not the same. Kent’s whole world was destroyed when his parents died, and having their killer resurface to terrorize him again had shaken him as well. She knew the others were still worried, even Shin, because they stopped by to check on him, sometimes using flimsy excuses, other times not even bothering to conceal it.

Kent found it annoying. She thought it was sweet. She was glad they cared enough to worry.

“Did the guys do something again? Or is this about Sawa and Mine coming by yesterday?”

He didn’t look at her. “This latest case. The woman killed three people because her husband forgot their anniversary. That… I don’t understand.”

She grimaced. She didn’t know that she understood that, either. “I suppose it does hurt a bit when someone forgets something like that, a date that should be special to both of you, and I can see being mad about it, but killing over it? That is extreme. And she didn’t just go after her husband? She killed other people?”

“Do anniversaries have that much meaning?” Kent asked, looking over at her. “You said that missing them hurt and that it could make you angry… And that is… common?”

“Your parents never celebrated anniversaries?”

“No. And I believe Ikkyu has regaled you with tales of how I forget my own birthday.”

She nodded. She’d heard about that from more than Ikki, and it was both funny and sad. She supposed age didn’t matter so much to Kent. He wasn’t worried about how old he was or how much he’d accomplished by any certain number, just that he was alive and still researching.

“Well, I think the significance varies from person to person, but when it’s something like… well, if you love someone, your life changes when you meet them, right? So… it seems like an important day or moment.”

“Oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you actually remember what day we met?” Kent asked, frowning. “I don’t. And I don’t… out of curiosity, what would you consider our anniversary? It could not be said that we were even friends prior to your abduction, and even now… it is not the day you were found. Not the day after, either. I suppose by some definition… would it be that awards dinner you attended in Kyoto? That was not a date in romantic sense, or so I would believe, but then the support you offered by attending it for my sake was a sort of romantic gesture, and yet… Is that even worth celebrating? That is such an odd concept. I don’t know that I can understand the necessity of it.”

She almost told him it wasn’t significant or necessary at all, but her own heart ached to think of it like that. Meeting Kent had changed her life, and even if the first part of their acquaintance was arguments and pride, with neither of them able to back down or admit they were wrong or that they felt something for the other, it was still important to her that they were together. No, she might not know that date off the top of her head, and she wouldn’t consider that an anniversary, but she did want to have one and share that with him.

“I’d say that night. Not the awards dinner in Kyoto, but the night after you got out of the hospital and we spoke of how we felt. That’s when we had our real start. We admitted the truth of our feelings even if we weren’t sure of them yet, and that’s… that’s us. That’s what I’d consider our anniversary.”

“I see.”

She set aside her book and went over to Kent’s side, wrapping her arms around him. “I’m sorry you had such a rough case.”

“It was not the worst we’ve dealt with. It was simply unwise of the man to have engaged in an extramarital affair on the day of their anniversary. It cost his life and that of his mistress before the woman took her own life. It was a waste, but then these overly emotional reactions always seem to be.”

She sighed. She wasn’t sure she wanted to say anything that might seem emotional, and yet she had to be glad that he wasn’t that sort of man. She also wanted to cheer him up somehow, and she knew those words weren’t meant for that, but still, they wanted to be said.

“I love you, Kent.”

He didn’t say it back, not that she expected him to, but he shifted their positions so he could hold her, keeping her tight against him and touching his lips to her temple, and she knew what that meant even if it wasn’t in words.

* * *

“Here.”

Kokoa looked at the plate with a frown. She knew that she couldn’t really say no to cake, especially since this looked homemade, and she had yet to eat something Kent made that she didn’t like. Those cookies last week would be the death of her if he ever made them again—she couldn’t stop eating them and had polished off a whole tray by herself while they were supposed to be cooling.

And Orion ratted her out about it, but that wasn’t the point.

“What is this?”

“Well, it was a cake for what you have termed our anniversary, but the team was here earlier and got to it before I was finished decorating it, so it is simply a piece of cake with little embellishment. I didn’t have time to make another, and I was unwilling to go to the store to buy one. That sounds wrong. It’s not that I didn’t want to give you the perfect cake. I did. I just felt it should be something I made, not something I purchased. Purchasing things… that’s too easy and not fitting of the sentiment of the occasion.”

She stared at him. He’d remembered what she said about their anniversary? And… he’d prepared to celebrate it? Oh, hell. She’d written that off and didn’t do anything for him.

“Kent...”

“Of course, if this does offend you—”

She tugged him close so she could kiss him before he got started on that. Leaning her head against his, she sighed. “It’s not that. It’s so wonderful and unexpected. I… I didn’t think you’d do this.”

“I know you are not the sort of woman who would kill over it like the woman we discussed, but I did not want to disappoint you or permit you to believe that this relationship is not important to me. I may not always know how to show it or say what I feel, but you matter to me more than anything.”

She smiled at him, feeling tears coming because she was both so happy and so mortified that she hadn’t done anything for him.

“We don’t need grand gestures and big moments,” she said, because that was true. “We have our small ones, and this is more than enough for me. I love you. And I love that you remembered and that you made a cake yourself, and it’s so very our family that they helped themselves to it.”

He smiled at her, and she wanted to kiss him again, but she couldn’t. She needed something more, something she could give him, and a kiss wasn’t enough.

“Are you going to eat that?”

She eyed the cake. “I don’t know if I can if you’re watching me.”

He frowned. “It bothers you if I watch you eat?”

“Not exactly. I just… I didn’t get you anything, and I feel guilty… and I’ll get fat if I keep eating all your desserts, and I don’t want that but they’re hard to resist and—”

“You are all I need. And so long as your weight is not a threat to your health, I do not care how much you weigh, though it might be more difficult to carry you… Hmm. I may have to add to my exercise regimen.”

She found herself staring at him again. “Kent...”

“I suppose that didn’t sound right, did it?”

“Not entirely, but at the same time…” She tugged him close again. “I think it’s sweet, even if it was a bit awkward, which is very you and very much a part of what I love about you. And it’s… well, I’d hate to lose the feeling of being in your arms, and being carried is actually kind of nice when you do it, so I don’t want to have to—I’m not going to gain any extra weight so you can still do that easily.”

“I see.”

“Don’t laugh. It’s practical. You like practical.”

He laughed anyway, but it didn’t matter because she was laughing, too, and this moment might be small and not what anyone would have planned on or thought they wanted for an anniversary, but it was strangely perfect for them.

 


End file.
